Toxic world exposed by Paltrow, Queen of Fake

THE $145,000 fine against Gwyneth Paltrow for selling jade and rose quartz vaginal eggs under the false claim that they could regulate menstruation, boost orgasms and enhance the functioning of the female vagina was not unexpected. Of late, the Hollywood Princess, whose high-end lifestyle website Goop is valued at $250m, has come under scrutiny for flogging ‘wellness’ products whose supposed healing powers have not only no basis in science but could be dangerous.

Paltrow uses a mix of New Age mumbo jumbo and junk science to promote her exclusive lines in face massage rollers, crystals, chai protein supplements and – new to the market this week – furniture.

Perhaps her organic flower essence that prevents ‘shame spirals’ leading to depression and retails for $22 from Goop, explains why she can dismiss this stain on her reputation with her usual haughty composure. She has promised not to make any more unfounded claims for her products and to hire a fact checker.

GYWNETH knows that this little hiccup will not topple her off her pedestal as the undisputed Queen of the Blogosphere. It is her influence that has seen copycat celebrities from Reese Witherspoon to Jennifer Garner become lifestyle gurus.

She has also spawned a generation of nobodies, or rather instamums and social media influencers, who post heavily curated images of their lives, while cashing in on sponsored posts that target their devoted followers.

We have Gwyneth to thank for twentysomething blogger Scarlett London who no doubt saw her army of followers multiply when she ran to the traditional media, aka the newspapers, claiming to have received death threats after one of her posts went viral.

Scarlett’s crime was portraying her typical morning routine with a photograph of herself reclining across her bed, with a full face of make up, surrounded by bunches of pink balloons and dishes of strawberries. Perched on her bed table was a well known brand of mouthwash that Scarlett admitted was a paid advert or ‘sponsored post’ as ads are called in Instagram parlance.

Poor Scarlett needed more than a bucket of mouthwash to kill the aftertaste of bile and venom that exploded in the social media storm that followed.The charge of inauthenticity against Instagram is as old as the charge of fakery against Gwyneth Paltrow. Yet, unless Gwynnie has hired an editor to curate com- ments in the aftermath of the fine, her followers seem as fawning as ever. Her starpower protects her.

The contrast with the extreme backlash against Scarlett is disturbing. It’s as if the act of staging a crass photograph demands nothing less than a witch hunt and trumps anything Paltrow received for flogging products with the potential to damage women’s health.

The hatred of young and unknown women bloggers, unleashed under the guise of concern for impressionable young women who may feel insecure by the picture perfect lives portrayed on Instagram, is disgusting. It’s another side of the age-old misogyny and harassment uncovered by #MeToo!

So much for the wonders of ‘new media’. Between the artfully presented advertising content, the online bullying and abuse, and the destructive impact of celebrity worship and hierarchy of untouchable bloggers, it’s starting to seem very old school indeed.